McMaster's Quinlan plays for his family

McMaster's Kyle Quinlan plays for his family

When it was finally over he looked first for her.

As the McMaster Marauders blanketed the field inside BC Place and swarmed around kicker Tyler Crapigna after his 20-yard game winning field goal won the Vanier Cup 41-38 in double overtime Friday night, quarterback Kyle Quinlan pulled himself away from the excitement long enough to look in the stands for his mom, Brenda.

“I couldn’t pick them out through all the mayhem,” the 22-year old said over the phone Monday from McMaster’s Hamilton campus. He looked for his family as a way of acknowledging the result of their enduring support. When he turned back, he realized he already had a bigger family on the field. “I saw everyone rushing the field and had to go join the fun.”

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Days after McMaster’s first national football title, Quinlan said it is hard to relax and distill the emotions of the game that would not end. The Marauders led 23-0 at half time before Laval, the six-time national champions, scored 31 unanswered points in the second half. McMaster rallied to tie the game — on Matthew Peressini’s nine-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion — and had a chance to win the game on the last play, but Crapigna’s 30-yard field-goal attempt missed wide left.

From the sidelines Quinlan thought the kick was good, but he also did not want the night to finish that way.

“I think some of the guys were really enjoying doing that, playing a full football game, because we had not had to do that in several weeks,” Quinlan said. McMaster had trounced its opponents 126-53 in three playoff games en route to the Vanier Cup.

Quinlan, seemingly unflappable on the field, was the undoubted star for McMaster in the final, throwing for 482 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions, while running for another 106 yards. The fourth-year economics student was named the game’s most valuable offensive player.

“Everything just worked in that first half,” Quinlan said. “Everyone was on assignment and on task and the offence was clicking. We had great protection. The guys were going and making catches and running hard. It was a complete effort.”

Yet few will remember that opening frame for the three-yard touchdown catch by James Hill or the 13-yard scoring run by Christopher Pezzetta. McMaster’s early dominance will always be compartmentalized into the hurdle the quarterback performed in the second quarter when Quinlan bolted left out of the pocket toward Laval defensive back Dominic Noel.

“I just jumped as high as I could,” said Quinlan. “[The team] enjoyed it pretty thoroughly. They have gotten used to me not sliding. As much as they’ve told me throughout the season to slide and get out of bounds, I think they realize in the last game of our season I wasn’t going to be saving myself for anything.”

McMaster would need its star as Laval clawed its way back in the second half, with 17 points in the third quarter. But Quinlan’s said the Rouge et Or’s defiance only added more nuance to the game. He was not even upset about the interception he threw to Frédérick Plesius, which the linebacker turned into a touchdown.

“It was a great play, a one-handed pick. When I realized he intercepted it, he was already back into the end zone. He is one of the best players in the country. It was obviously a huge turning point in the game. We knew we had to respond.”

Quinlan said the Marauders felt an obligation to win because of the support they had received from the school’s community. But the depth and meaning of support is different for Quinlan. He searched for his family after the game because without them he says he might not have been playing in the national championship. In September, he was charged with one count of assault and two counts of assaulting a police officer after an altercation at a campus bar. Quinlan was suspended from the team for three games. He is due back in Hamilton court Thursday.

“I have just had an incredible outpouring of support from everyone here, and especially my family and all friends back home as well. It is great to know people have your back when it is not going as well,” the native of Woodslee, Ont., native said.

Quinlan says there will be enough time to finish school projects and think about career options. He intends on entering next spring’s CFL draft in his first year of eligibility. But he cannot get that moment with his family, with mom out of his mind. He was raised by a single parent.

“It just means the world to share that moment with my mom and with my family,” he said. “That was my immediate thought [after the game] to find them and go embrace her as soon as I could. Not too long after, I did end up picking her out of the crowd and had a good moment with her.

“We weren’t saying much. There were some tears on both ends. We were just kind of letting it all sink in and she just said, ‘Congratulations. I love you.’ It was just a quiet a moment.”